Did you know...?

...That almost everything you throw away in your trash can can actually be recycled?

I started recycling in February 2006 after visiting a friend who does it. I guess I just didn't realize just how much stuff I threw away that could be recycled and reused. Any glass jars or bottles, cans that had food in them... cardboard boxes, paperboard boxes such as cereal boxes, plastic bottles from water or cokes, milk jugs, all kinds of paper... you name it. There are very few things that I actually have to throw away now, and almost all of that is from the snakes and rats.

If you're not too sure about how great of an idea it is to just bury all of your trash in a big hole in the ground, and would like to reduce the amount of waste that is thrown into landfills, check out the link in my signature.

:rockon:

good for you! i've been heavily into recycling for many years now. we don't even use toilet paper or paper towels. no kleenex for us either. we figure we've saved a whole lotta trees in our time!

it's amazing what you can do, if you put some effort into it.

and for those of you who are wondering... yes we do wipe, we just use home made flannel wipes. 4 ply of some nice thick flannel... and each wipe lasts approx. 10 years! yup you read right. we still have a few left from over 13 years ago when we started this. here's how you do it... you cut your flannel into equal sized pieces approx. 6"x4" (be sure to wash and shrink it first)... then take 4 pieces and sew them together. be sure to serge or zigzag the edges (i use a triple zig zag on my machine).

then get yourself a bin to sit beside the toilet. i made little sacks to fit into the bins made out of football jersey material. this way we just grap the sack and toss it into the washing machine. wash on hot, with a tiny bit of bleach and VOILA you've got nice clean wipes!

we wash them every couple of days, usually when we are low.

i make flannel towels to wipe up messes, and one and two ply kleenex as well.

why do we do it? cause we can!

and we have two bins in our kitchen... to hold paper and the other holds plastic and glass. when they are full... off to the recycle centre for us!

Now that we have a truck where we can haul all of our recycled stuff to the transfer station we are definitely going to start doing it. We had a small car so hauling stuff was out of the question.

Coeur d' Alene and the surrounding areas, like Post Falls, Hayden and a few other small outlying cities here don't have a recycle program. We have the little blue bins but they only pick up news paper. So everyone has to haul everything to the transfer station and sort it out and put it into the proper bins for recycling.

So what the proposed plan is now, they want to build a prison/inmate housing out here on the Post Falls Prairie just outside of the city. It should house any inmates that aren't headed for prison time, and just have say 6 months to a year. There will also be a transfer stations there too, where the inmates will have to sort through garbage for recyclable things. I don't think that is such a bad idea, it would cut down on our major garbage problem. Apparently where I live is one of the worst places in the nation for recycling and it bothers me.

Definitely something I want to teach my children to do...

I noticed your link the other day. I will definitely read through it.

We recycle like mad. We recently had to have a 2nd recycling bin delivered. 2 full recycling bins every week and maybe 1 trash bag a week...Well 3 if you count from the rats

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good for you! i've been heavily into recycling for many years now. we don't even use toilet paper or paper towels. no kleenex for us either. we figure we've saved a whole lotta trees in our time!

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I wish I could get Mike to go for that but he's got serious "issues" with...erm...poo.

We "recycle" a lot of things already but once we move (keeping my fingers crossed) we'll be able to do a lot more... like have a compost pile. We don't accumulate a whole lot of garbage but of what we do, pretty much anything glass, plastic, aluminum or paper we re-use in one way or another.
There are a million and one uses for cans and glass bottles and those plastic milk jugs make great weather covers for delicate seedlings.

Heck, we even take cereal boxes and the like and turn those into "doll houses" for the kids. I use to do that when I was a kid, make houses out of old boxes so it's something I've always enjoyed doing and the kids love being able to help out. Since I have a sewing machine, I even re-use old, worn out clothes by making them into doll drapes, bedding, etc.
The kids love it! We're currently working on a castle for them but we have many more boxes to collect before it's finished.

So basically, I *do* recycle, I just don't give much of it to the recycling places, except for soda cans, very thin or broken glass and plastic that I haven't found a use for yet. :)

I really admit to having to be better about recycling. Sometimes it is just easier to burn everything.. we have a bonfire often, sometimes 2x a week. While this reduces what we have to leave at the roadside, I worry that the things we burn can release noxious pollutants.. but it is just stuff like cardboard, paper products like used napkins and paper bags, etc. I make the effort to use reusable washcloths and towels rather than paper towels; this was tough for me because I am always in a hurry to do chores, but now the main paper waste comes from the snakes, and we burn that.. plastic products, we have to take ot my mom's in the city, but we should really get a recycling box of our own.
I got a reusable canvas bag for groceries; this makes me feel better than using stupid plastic or paper bags that rip on you and are a waste of resources to boot!

oh i love those reusable cloth bags... i carry two of them in my purse at all times. amazing how many bags we don't bring home since i put them in my purse. cause before... i always forgot to bring them along!

I sincerely wish I could recycle more. In my neighborhood we didnt have a recycling program, so my female roommate and I had to drive to the next neighborhood to recycle. We'd fill up a bin every week and drive it over there. Problem was, the guys were constantly throwing stuff in the trash so we'd have to dumpster dive each time we made a recycle run. We have them mostly trained now. ;) We constantly bothered the landlord about it, and just three days ago WE GOT A RECYCLING PROGRAM. All the neighbors kept telling us, "yeah, we should do that" and "we admire you guys" and now they CAN do that. -lol-

I'd love to recycle so much as to not even use toilet paper but my guy also has serious issues with poo. It's like, a phobia for him - very strange. So he'd never go for that idea...

psst - YOU can use the flannel wipes (we call them bum wipes or FBW) and he can continue to use tp. you have no idea how many families i've helped to convert and so many of the husbands were against it until it was in the house and they tried it.

it gets you so clean. i can't believe how yucky it is using tp... how unclean you are. you really do have to try it to understand.

come over for coffee... have a nice poo and you'll see! (yes i know... denise is on the bus as we speak) LOL

I think even just having my dirty flannel wipes in the bathroom would be an issue with him... :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Mindibun

I think even just having my dirty flannel wipes in the bathroom would be an issue with him... :rolleyes:

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That's what it would be with Mike. He's got a major (and I do mean MAJOR) problem with anything poop... he can't even handle changing the baby's diaper if it's not just a pee. He literally freaks out and starts gagging, shaking and stuff. It's one of his PTSD issues. :(
I'd have to find a way to keep them completely out of sight (and smell until they got tossed in the washer later that day) in order for him to be able to handle it I think.
Hmmm, will have to start doing some creative thinking.....

i would hate to be the maytag repairman coming to your house goddess, does anyone stop an descretely smell you in public? lol im joking, but years of putting that much crap in your washer has to be rubbing off on your clothes....oh yea, my city has had a recycling program in effect for as long as i can remember, it's second nature to us , put all your glass,plastic cardboard etc in the bluebox! we have 2 of them and 3 composters in the backyard, 1 for dogpoo, other for clippings ,food waste etc

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Originally Posted by jeffjr464

i would hate to be the maytag repairman coming to your house goddess, does anyone stop an descretely smell you in public? lol im joking, but years of putting that much crap in your washer has to be rubbing off on your clothes....oh yea, my city has had a recycling program in effect for as long as i can remember, it's second nature to us , put all your glass,plastic cardboard etc in the bluebox! we have 2 of them and 3 composters in the backyard, 1 for dogpoo, other for clippings ,food waste etc

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Apparently you're unfamiliar with how a washing machine works... or what laundry soap is? :)
I sincerely hope you were joking because, although I'm not Aleesha, I read that as very rude.

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Originally Posted by jeffjr464

i would hate to be the maytag repairman coming to your house goddess, does anyone stop an descretely smell you in public? lol im joking, but years of putting that much crap in your washer has to be rubbing off on your clothes....

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I read this as being rude as well.

I personally think that Aleesha's idea is great. In my mind, not only is it helping the environment, it has got to be saving them money as well. (Tp and papertowels can be a bit expensive!!)

I've had 5 kids and only my first two got baby wipes used on their butts. All of my other kids have had wash clothes used on them and in all those years of raunchy, nasty baby poo filled clothes being run through the washer, my kids, their clothes nor the washing machine smell like anything other than the laundry soap. :)
I can't help but wonder if the wash cloth or whatever you use when you bathe/shower smells like age old sweat?

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Originally Posted by jeffjr464

i would hate to be the maytag repairman coming to your house goddess, does anyone stop an descretely smell you in public? lol im joking, but years of putting that much crap in your washer has to be rubbing off on your clothes....oh yea, my city has had a recycling program in effect for as long as i can remember, it's second nature to us , put all your glass,plastic cardboard etc in the bluebox! we have 2 of them and 3 composters in the backyard, 1 for dogpoo, other for clippings ,food waste etc

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guys, guys, guys... we use the toilet... all we do is WIPE with the cloth. they don't smell at all (and trust me i can smell a jar of broken pickles 10 blocks away! - ask my hubby, it's the truth)

so there's isn't much urine or feces on them at all...

and no... we don't stink. :rolleye2:

i didn't take your post as rude... just uninformed.